History

Submitted by boone on Tue, 09/03/2013 - 10:30

The year was 1974 and Boone County finally had a real library of its own. One of the banks in downtown Madison was relocating to a new building and wishing to be freed from the expenses of maintenance and taxes this building incurred, sold it to the Boone-Madison Library Board for for the enormous sum of one dollar!

Prior to this and during the depression (the late Twenties and most of the Thirties,) there was a library located in a building across the street. This library was run on a voluntary basis by the Women's Club of Madison. The collection consisted of donations from the members who kept it open a few days a week.

The library dissolved about the time WW II began. Then there was no form of library until the WV Library Commission established the bookmobiles.In 1977, the first of three carousel instant libraries in Boone County appeared in the Barrett-Wharton area. Three years later, across Williams Mountain, the second carousel branch was constructed and became the Coal River Branch Library. In 1984, the third branch was constucted in Whitesville.

The early 1980's saw the beginning of automation in the Boone-Madison Public library. In the middle and late 1990's the old computer system for library operations was replaced at the main library by personal computers for patrons and library services. Today all Boone County Libraries have computers and access to the Internet is readily available to the public.

Although the library has survived several years of financial challenges, citizens of Boone County demonstrated their support their support overwhelmingly with the passage of the Boone County Library Levy of 1998 and again in 2001.